Philip Gooden (Chair)

Philip writes both fiction and non-fiction. His historical novels include the Nick Revill series, set in Elizabethan London and recently republished in a uniform edition.

He also writes books on language, including Faux Pas?, which won the English Speaking Union award for the best English Language book of 2006, and most recently Bad Words, a history of bad language. He was Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association 2007-8.

Michael Smith

Michael Smith served in military intelligence before becoming a journalist with the BBC, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times. He is the author of 17 books, including the Sunday Times number one bestseller Station X: The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park.

Mireille Harper

Mireille Harper is an editorial director at Bluebird & One Boat (Pan Macmillan). She is also a freelance editor and writer, sensitivity reader and PR/communications consultant. As a communications consultant specialising in creative, cultural and community-led projects, Mireille has worked with Punch Records, BYP Network, ShoutOut Network. She is a trustee of the charity Migrateful and of the publisher And Other Stories, and on the advisory board for Africa Writes.

Hamza Jahanzeb 

Hamza Jahanzeb is a freelance publishing professional working in editorial services offering Authenticity Read expertise. He hails from Accrington (Lancs) in the north-west of England, and as a British-Pakistani, he is passionate for equality in the publishing industry. He commissioned Remember Me? by Shobna Gulati (dinnerladies, Coronation Street). A staunch advocate for #BookJobTransparency and co-founding member of the Pride in Publishing initiative, he is a campaigner and activist who seeks to change hiring practices to be more inclusive. He was also chosen as a Bookseller Rising Star of 2020. You can find him on Twitter at @hamzajahanzeb or contact him via his website: www.hamzajahanzeb.co.uk